Enric Joanmiquel - Ghost - Critique

(click image to play the movie)

Here is the comparison movie.

What I did:

- the black belt: duplicated, hid the original, parented the copy to the hip, so that you can see visually that there are hip changes.

For the clip though, I did parent the belt to the hip in your version to see what's going on, but there wasn't a difference. :(

As you can see, the hip reacts to the steps. Also pay attention as to how much weight is being put onto the hip, and if there's more weight, the hip reacts to it. This happens after x61, when he moves up faster, right before the next step.

I hope this helps!
JD

Jero Maggi - Jump - Critique

 

00:00:00:28
Make sure to twist the hips in Y and also sideways. The leg that's forward will rotate the hips that way and the weight bearing leg will have the hip up on that side.

00:00:00:28
So his left hip will be forward and up. His right foot won't be flat on the ground due to the angle of the leg and his right knee will be more SR for a better silhouette => if you do the squint test it looks like he has a really short leg without moving the knee over.

 
00:00:01:21
When the shin is really low and you don't have your foot roll, it looks like you will pop his Achilles heel. Act out that pose and you will see what your foot does.

00:00:02:06
Bring back the shoulders fully when you pull back the arms.

00:00:02:11
Foot roll on his left foot (Achilles heel)

00:00:02:14
Shoulders down

00:00:02:18
Shoulders forward and up and rotate hips depending on which leg is forward

00:00:02:23 
Same here, bring up the shoulders so that they are not on the same level as the top red body line. Hips need rotating.

00:00:02:27
Shoulders up

00:00:03:03
- shoulders up - bend his right leg a TINY bit, so it's not super straight, that way it will feel like the line of action goes from his body straight down his leg - angle of both feet feel too similar, gives it a twinning feel

00:00:03:07
Bring shoulders down a little bit and bend arms a little bit, so that they are not overextended.

00:00:03:11
Same here, bend arm and bring down shoulders. The overlapping timing though is a lot better than last week, nice job!

00:00:03:17
Shoulders lower, foot roll on his left foot and bend arms. Once his arms are fully taking the weight of the body you can bend the arms more and bring up the shoulders: - bending because of the weight of the body on them - but arms can't go lower because of the ground, so they will push shoulders up

00:00:03:23
Bring back the elbow, so that it bends the arm visually the other way and bring up the shoulders.

00:00:02:19
Overall the movement up can be faster.

Jero Maggi - Jump - Critique

Starting from this moment on the timing feels feels too slow. It's as if he goes into slow motion mode.

This is the section that doesn't work as well. Once he lands you get to that pose and it has his head already curled down. He would be first fully extended body wise, then the body curls forward because of the compression and the head would drag, then the body would stop moving forward and that's when the head would move forward.

It feels like his arms are super extended but the head is kinda scrunched together. Does the rig let you extend and move the neck forward more?

Don't forget to a foot roll so that the shin is not compressed. You'd pop his Achilles heel. :)

Jihwan Jung - Jerry - Critique

Hey,

here my thoughts:

- same notes from last week apply regarding the shoulders, you want to push the motion and range and timing, so that we can see the difference
- the two inhales (one after "Oh Jerry", the other after "Oh God") need to be visible in her chest and overall body; without that the audio doesn't feel connected to the character
- it doesn't look like you addressed the previous notes that much (if at all):

This previous note still applies, especially the head, which is not tilted at all in your current clip

- I would put her hand on the phone, and then let it stay on the phone for a few frames, then pick up the phone, and make that picking up motion faster.

Right now, the arm movement is fairly even and slow, which makes it look like she's still sad and depressed. But the pick up should reflect the audio at the end, where she's happy again. Each movement communicates emotion to the audience

Anim wise:
- x15 to 47 her left hand, her fingers slowly close, which feels like a stray key or a robot; same thing with how she opens up her hand during "oh god", feels even, there's not contrast in timing there
- the head tilt during the "oh Jerry" part feels too isolated; involve her chest a bit more, so you show how the head affects the rest of the body
- her left arm gesture on "now?" also feels too isolated and a bit linear in how the arm starts and stops moving
- watch out right before that how both arms and the head move at the same time, starting at x209 and ending at x217 (head stops moving SR and the her left arm stops moving SR (goes down after that))

During that move, don't forget to have arcs on movements (for instance, track her nose), be it head turns, arm movements, etc.

Same goes for her arm during that section:

I would work overall on arcs, your ease in/outs so that the timing has more emotional meaning and connecting the body to the audio. After that we will check out the facial work.

Hope that helps!
JD

Jihwan Jung - Jerry - Critique

Looking good!

Here my thoughts:

- on the first "Oh Jerry", I'd bring up the shoulders and lower them on "Jerry", so it's like a sigh almost; right now the shoulders are pretty dead
- same on "Oh God", right before the "Oh" she inhales, so you could show that in the chest and shoulders
- then after "God" bring the shoulders down, so it's overall drooped

- by having them down, you can bring them up once she picks up the 2nd phone, making her more alert and perky; that will give you more visual contrast in the poses and body emotion

- I would also tilt her head more to the side, so she has visually more trouble keeping her body straight, she looks more tired/defeated/sad

- again, that will provide contrast for the very end, when her head is straight and her body is straight

Hope that helps!
JD

Jero Maggi - Sit Down - Critique

Yep, this looks a lot better, nicely done!

I got some picky notes and I would starting thinking about your next exercise. Do you have a preference and what you would like to do? I'd recommend a jump at this point, but if you prefer something else, let me know!

Okay:
- the arm pose from x0 to 22 still feels a bit forced; a big factor are the hand poses, which don't feel natural:



The outstretched fingers and the vertical rotation feel force. I'd look into poses like these:



So for your SL one it would be something like the red circled one, silhouette wise. The SR one wouldn't be so flat towards us and not have the wrist so vertical, it would follow the forearm a bit more:



- watch out that your hand is not locked in space, like after x15, which gives it an IK feel



- watch out that the pupils are visible and not disappearing around x26 and or getting into a cross-eyed pose



- the SL hand is drifting up his thigh from x57 to 73; I'd stabilize it and give it a more solid contact with the leg

- when he sits down, the pelvis kinda sinks into the chair from x50 to 54. It's good that it's not super sharp, but this feels a bit too soft and drifty. I know it's minor, but I would have only one or two frames of cushioning, but at a little overlap in the head on the frame of impact, so that the head rotates down a bit, showing us how the sitting stops the root but the momentum and "shockwave" travels to his head where the head continues down to finish the momentum. Hope that makes sense. :)

- lastly, I would soften the stop of the head going down at x75, it almost locks into place at the end.

You're very close!
JD

Stefan Rei - Whiskey - Critique

The whiskey clip is looking really cool! I like the contrast that you have built into the poses and that you move back and forth in his stance, it makes good use of space.



Regarding your question: I wouldn't have him stay low after x150 and stare in his glass, only because I like the playful and comedic tone of the clip, but that's subjective. If you keep him down while he keeps staring at his glass, it will make for a more thoughtful moment. Your acting choice around x87 gives him a rather playful action, which I think works well with the audio...


... so what you have is nice to me, because he's slowly propping himself and getting ready for the last drink. It's a nice long subtle anticipation to his final move.
If he's staying in his pose like on x125, he would have to move quickly to get into the pose at 247, which might feel too big after the long, thoughtful look into his glass.
Unless you go the opposite way: so he's looking at his glass after x150, you keep him down, and instead of up and standing for the drink, you go lower and crouched, with a more downbeat feeling and less flamboyant drinking gesture, slowly slurping the last drop:




Hope that makes sense. :)

- you have a good amount of break downs, there's only one section that I'd work on a bit more timing wise, which is the head move from x215 to 216 and the drinking from x233 to 234. Given his drunken state, those moves will be sloppy and slower, with the faster move when he goes for the last drink. Is the audio longer? You might have to extend the shot a little bit to give those two moments enough time.

- if you're going with what you have, you could have him a little bit more wobbly at the end, where you push how far screen left he goes around x213, so that he can travel further screen right to get to x240, as a bigger anticipation, giving himself enough swing to make sure that he can get every last drop out of his glass.





Hope this helps!
JD